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VA Staffing Shortages 2025: Crisis Echoes Phoenix VA Scandal
The VA Office of Inspector General’s 2025 staffing report paints a troubling picture of Veterans Affairs healthcare. Severe VA staffing shortages have skyrocketed, hitting every single one of the VA’s 139 medical centers. While VA officials wave off the Inspector General findings as unreliable, the reality for veterans tells a different story. What the VA…
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Understanding the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP): A Complete Guide
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) represents one of the most unique areas of federal law, providing compensation for individuals injured by covered vaccines through a specialized court system in Washington, D.C. Understanding how this program works is essential for anyone who believes they may have suffered a vaccine-related injury.What is the National Vaccine…
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Understanding the Federal Tort Claims Act: A Different Path to Justice
When medical malpractice occurs at Veterans Affairs hospitals, military medical facilities, or federally-funded clinics, the path to justice runs through federal rather than state courts. The Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) provides this avenue, but it operates very differently from typical state medical malpractice cases.Why Federal Law AppliesThe government generally cannot be sued without its…
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What Virginia’s 2025 Medical Malpractice Damage Cap Means for Patients
Virginia’s medical malpractice damage cap has increased to $2.70 million for cases involving injuries between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. This annual $50,000 increase reflects ongoing legislative recognition that medical costs continue to rise, but many patients and families don’t understand how these caps actually work or what they mean for their situations.How…
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The WSJ Gets It Wrong on Vaccine Injury Reform
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial attacking RFK Jr. and the “trial bar” fundamentally misunderstands both the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the legitimate role attorneys play in protecting injured patients. The Journal claims trial lawyers want to “dismantle” the VICP for financial gain. This misses the point entirely. The VICP exists precisely because vaccines can…
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The VA’s Prescription for Disaster
The Wall Street Journal just confirmed what many veterans already knew: the VA’s answer to PTSD isn’t treatment—it’s sedation. Three out of five veterans with PTSD are prescribed multiple psychiatric medications simultaneously. The VA calls it treatment. Veterans call it the “combat cocktail.” These aren’t careful, evidence-based prescribing decisions. This is assembly-line psychiatry: veteran complains,…
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Nursing Home Negligence Law: Pressure Ulcers
One of the most frequent complaints we hear from potential clients is that their mom or dad contracted pressure ulcers (also known as bedsores) in a nursing home. If your loved one has developed a pressure ulcer while in nursing home care, you’re likely dealing with a mix of anger, confusion, and heartbreak. Medical literature…
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HHS Secretary Kennedy takes aim at reforming the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
Recently RFK Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, created a stir with comments on X stating that he intends to conduct a sweeping overhaul of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, or VICP. Secretary Kennedy used strong language with criticism aimed at both the DOJ attorneys who represent the US government against injured claimants…
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Virginia Nursing Home Laws 2025: New Regulations, Penalties, and Legal Rights for Families
What You Need to Know About Virginia’s Nursing Home Reform Laws and Federal Staffing RequirementsVirginia families dealing with nursing home neglect and abuse now have stronger legal protections thanks to sweeping regulatory reforms that took effect July 1, 2025. These changes, combined with new federal staffing mandates, represent the most significant overhaul of nursing home…
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Dental Practice Targets Children Across the Country in Medicaid Scam
Years ago, a nationwide dental practice, Kool Smiles, agreed to pay $23.9 million to the United States under the False Claims Act for Medicaid fraud allegations. The dental practice had been falsely diagnosing children with issues requiring crowns and “baby” root canals in order to bill Medicaid programs for the unnecessary procedures.You would think that…
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Glen Sturtevant Talks to Military.com About Military Childcare Center Abuse Cases
Glen Sturtevant spoke to Military.com earlier this month about the child abuse cases that took place at the child development center at Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, AZ, in late-2020 and early-2021. Rawls Law Group represents five families whose children were abused by staff at the military childcare center. Click the link below to…
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$1,000,000 Settlement in Case of Misread Pathology
This veteran and VA patient in his 70’s had a lesion on his scalp which was excised and biopsied. Unfortunately, the biopsy was misread as benign. The patient later developed swelling on one side of his neck. The original scalp biopsy was reread and was found to be squamous cell cancer.Had the original biopsy been…